Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

gavial

(Encyclopedia)gavial gāˈvēəl [key], large reptile of the crocodile order, found in rivers from Pakistan to Myanmar. Also called gharial, the gavial (Gavialis gangeticus) is distinguished from the crocodiles and...

game laws

(Encyclopedia)game laws, restrictions on the hunting or capture of wild game, whether bird, beast, or fish. After the Norman Conquest (1066), England enacted stringent game laws, known as the Forest Laws, which mad...

Montagnais and Naskapi

(Encyclopedia)Montagnais năsˈkəpē [key], aboriginal peoples originally from Labrador, Canada. Because they both spoke almost identical Algonquian languages and had similar customs, the two groups are often link...

murre

(Encyclopedia)murre mör [key], common name for a group of diving birds of the same family as the auk and the puffin (family Alcidae) and including the guillemots. There are three species of murres, all about 18 in...

manure

(Encyclopedia)manure, term used in the United States to refer to excreta of animals, with or without added bedding; also called barnyard manure. In other countries the term often refers to any material used to fert...

Maracaibo, Lake

(Encyclopedia)Maracaibo, Lake, largest lake of South America, c.5,100 sq mi (13,210 sq km), NW Venezuela, extending c.110 mi (180 km) inland. A strait, 34 mi (55 km) long, connects it with the Gulf of Venezuela. Di...

Walvis Bay

(Encyclopedia)Walvis Bay wôlˈvĭs [key], municipality (1991 pop. 12,100), W central Namibia, on Walvis Bay, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean. Walvis Bay is Namibia's most important port and the terminus of a railroad...

Callao

(Encyclopedia)Callao käyouˈ [key], city, capital of the constitutional prov. of Callao, W Peru, on Callao...

Zemurray, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Zemurray, Samuel, 1877–1961, American business executive, b. Russia as Schmuel Zmuri; he Americanized his name early in the 20th cent. His nearly penniless family emigrated in 1891 and soon settled ...

sunbittern

(Encyclopedia)sunbittern, common name for a graceful, stout-bodied, bitternlike bird, Eurypyga helias. It is named for its wing markings, an orange-chestnut shield set in an orange-buff circle, which looks like a s...

Browse by Subject